Crystal River current. [volume] (Crystal, Colo.) 1886-18??, 1887-09-24
SILLY BILLY.


hOukh sketths
sssl there he goes, poor fooll . reg
ulAr string OF small boys. like mos
quitoes, Fostering him this broiling
August afternoon. 1t is 4:3o O'Clock,
and from the village school his tor
mentors have hurried straight to the
old pump, with the intention of get
ting some sport out OF HIM before re-
turning to their cottage homes to tea.
For right well they know we is sitting
on the edge OF the stone trough where
the cattle halt on their way from the
fields to drink. He sees them coming,
these heartless boys, rises, and grip
ping his stick with firmer clutch,
walks of in an opposite direction.
Too late, Billy! the herd are upon
you, and you cannot now retreat.
But you can bring that weapon
OF yours down, notwithstand.
ing your imbecility, with an
unerring thwack upon the head OF
any one OF them who is not fully on
the alert! and they know it too.
That is the fun OF il, they all agree.
Small wonder is it that you lose your
temper. Who could avoid it? And
yet, if you could take it all in play, or
appear different, they would plague
you less. After all, Boys will be
boys" Billy! Don'tyou know that?
"Ah!" the poor fellow might retort,
had he but the wit toput his thoughts
into words, "does the fox think it
play-that game OF hide-and- seek. in
which the hounds give him ferocious
chase, tracking him to the death un
less he contrive to elude them by his
cunning? All, Master Fox, you should
make allowance. Hounds will be
hounds, you know! You must net
object to be pursued and worried to
death, since it affords them sport! !,
like you, am marked out for persecu.
ton, and what have Idone that it
should be so?"
Alas, poor fool! God give thee re-
compense in His own good time!
Thine is a hard lot. Pity is it that
those whose path in lie is compare
lively easy do not try their utmost
to make it easier for thee!
Poor simple Billy was not natural
ly ill-natured-qulte the reverse-but,
as everybody knows, the worm when
trodden on will turn. If it is scarcely
possible for a man in his mind to keep
his temper under outrage and insult,
is it to be expected that one in this
poor lads condition should exercise
greater self-control?
A long. lanky youth he is. The lin
en- smock he wears descends below the
knees. and his baggy trousers are
much too short to hold any commune
cation with the tops of his boots.
The red handkerchief that habitu-
ally swathes his neck has to-
day, on account of the axces-
sive heat, been loosened, exposing to
fuller view the thin throat into which
the chin of imbecllity seems to retreat,
as though it felt itself quite out of
place in its normal position; while
the battered cap. shufiled on to the
utmost limit of the back OF the head,
leaves entirely uncovered a remark
ably low forehead. and those sad eyes
whose expression is an admixture OF
vacancy and craft. Very easy Is it to
single him out in a crowd, and to rec
ognize him from afar, for his gait
is rickety and peculiar, and, were he
dressed like ordinary folk, the very
manner of holding his hands, palms
turned outward, would betray his in
dividualty.
Have done, I say, you bullies!
Can't you leave the poor thing alone2"
30 said the postman, a kind hearted
young fellow, as he passed along the
road, the sack OF letters and small
parcels slung over his shoulder, on his
way to the postoffice.
But he was only laughed at and told
to mind his own business, and, in truth,
being rather late, he had no time fur
ther to fight the battle of Simple Bill.
The one person In the whole of |
Longley best calculated to do that |
was Mrs. Hanneton. Bills mother:
and was an audacious youth indeed
who vsntured to defy her, or torment
the boy whom she loved beyond any-
thing else in the world in her presence.
Bot she could not always be at his
eide. for she was an active industrious
woman, and oftener at work than not
wei wss it for her and Bill that such
~ tbs ease, since she was the bread ,